Protagonize's "Tales of Terror" competition!

I realize this is a little last-minute, considering we have three days left until Halloween, but I figured I’d get everyone’s attention with the title. Oh, and the pic. :)

In the spirit of this week of goblins and ghouls, and since this is the week leading up to the trials and tribulations of NaNoWriMo, why don’t we have a little fun with it?

How about a little friendly competition between Protagonize authors? In these last few days before good ol’ Samhain, I want to see what you folks can do when working together on a “Tale of Terror.”

Update: Alright folks, the contest is up! I’ll post a note listing the finalists tomorrow and our esteemed judges (the moderators) will have a day or two to get their votes in for the winners. Cheers and hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Here’s how it works:

Both the top rated story and the highest-ranked hot stories posted between now and midnight on Halloween (well, 11:59pm Pacific Time on October 31st, 2009) in each of these three categories will be considered finalists for the competition:

The rules

Make sure your story (prose or poetry are both fine) is newly posted (and no, I don’t mind if you delete an old, orphaned story and re-post it for the competition) between now and the end of Halloween night. Stories will need to be appropriate to the category they’re posted in — we won’t select you as a winner if you post a totally miscategorized story.

You’re allowed to submit the story to multiple categories, but if you write a Halloween love story, it had better be a zombie romance story if you want to throw it in under Horror as well as Romance. :)

Collaborative stories are fine, as are solo stories. You’re welcome to post multiple stories, and we encourage everyone to collaborate with each others’ tales as well. The winners will be the original story posters, mind you, so keep that in mind when posting stuff.

Again — the winners will only be selected from those categories. Once we have the winners tallied up (the #1 Hot Story and the Top Rated story for each of those three categories, solely during the timeframe of the contest, and not prior), the moderators and I will judge all six finalists. The top two stories we select will win the competition.

Addendum: Mature stories are okay, but your story will not be featured if it’s mature. At best, you can win second place with a mature story, and be the featured author (yes, you’ll still get the badge.) Keep this in mind when writing, as you’ll rule yourself out of one of the two possible prize-finishes if your story is mature.

Note: Make it easier for folks to find your story — tag it “Tales of Terror“ when you’re posting!

Prizes! (yes, they’re virtual)

The two winners will be featured on the site for the week post-All Hallows Eve! Our first-place winner will have the featured story for the week, and the second-place winner will be the featured author. Sorry, there is no third place. :)

Both first- and second-place winners will receive a shiny badge on their profiles declaring them the winners of our inaugural 2009 Halloween “Tales of Terror” competition (and no, I haven’t designed it yet.)

Spread the word!

Feel free to send your story to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you post a link to the story on Twitter, mention @protagonize and we’ll retweet it to all Protagonize followers! Just make sure to use the #protagonize hashtag if you’re talking about your story on Twitter. :)

That’s it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below, or over in the Protagonize Pub group.